au revoir 2010

its been quite the year, happy new year everyone! heres to another year of art, fashion, life, adventures, and flanerie. thanks for all those who gave me such fond memories and kind words this year, in canada and abroad, in real life and through the powers of email and blogging. xx

relaying the message

minimalism is not a style, it is an attitude, a way of being. its a fundamental reaction against noise, visual noise, disorder, vulgarity. minimalism is the pursuit of the essence of things, not the appearance -massimo vingelli

what a fantastic quote found by dead fleurette to describe the correlation between minimalism and intellect, substance and visibility. its something that i think of often and fail to articulate in words or thought. i also reblogged this picture from her, because really, how could i not reblog this picture from her. vero did it too!

the weapons of patience and culture

the thing with europe, is that you can stumble on incredible things in the most unassuming places. take this experience, for example. melissa and i were walking home one day (i wish i remembered the street, in and around le marais), and we looked into a courtyard (first image)from the street and caught a glimpse of some art. so we walked across the courtyard and into this large room filled with contemporary art from various artists and media.

it was a really creative space and nice end to the day.

and see the thing that makes this situation better, is that on the way out, melissa sees a door in the courtyard that says alaia.. literally typed and printed from microsoft word. i actually caught the moment that she saw it in the first image. we of course went in, and found that it was a room the size of a bedroom filled with alaia shoes and clothes from past seasons. yes, they were discounted. yes, they were still out of my price range. yes, it was amazing anyway.

***

title from rhinoceros. jean advises berenger to woo daisy with intelligence, with "the weapons of patience and culture, the weapons of the mind"

a rhinoceros!

k

merry christmas, friends! i have been meaning to update forever, but am lacking in inspiration. perhaps it is the consumerism of the holidays, or perhaps it is because i have been working more than i have been living. either way, i need to actively seek out something new... i thought perhaps a red sweater or a new book would be a good start.

***

im not one to wear red, but im quite fond of this isabel marant one. and i have not before read anything from the theatre of the absurd, but i have started reading rhinoceros by ionesco and i highly, highly recommend it. i wouldnt even know where to begin with how amazing it is. the structure of the dialogue and the repetition of simple phrases are a quirky approach to this play about a french provincial town whose inhabitants turn into rhinoceroses (read: conformity of consumerism?)

xx

just in case

the gentlewoman is a new biannual style magazine for a new decade. featuring inspirational, international women, it pairs ambitious journalism with a sartorial and intelligent perspective on fashion that is focused on personal style.

i quite like it. although paris vogue informs about art, music, culture, and of course, fashion, the gentlewoman plays up the intelligent, renaissance woman of the present day. ps i'll try to disappear less!

the end of an era

... so speaking of melancholy and fashion and vogue and voguettes, carine roitfeld resigned from her position as editor in chief of vogue paris after ten years.

its a little scary when you get a phonecall from a friend at 10am in the age of texting and bbm, and the first thing she says is "hey mag, are you sitting down?" mon dieu! but not the least bit over-dramatic for mosha and i.

march will be carine's last issue and im sure she will go out with a bang. her creativity and vision with vogue paris has been enamouring me and my imagination since i bought my first issue in france, and i only hope the magazine will continue to develop in an equally unique and relevant direction.

where to next, carine? tom ford?

mélancolie de la mode

K

um yeah so... thats it, isnt it. all paris vogue, all black, all on point.

julian schnabel and an age of information

steph is visiting from london so we visited the art gallery of ontario today to see the julian schnabel exhibit which was concise and so interesting both visually and intellectually. i transcribed this quote from one of the didactics because its fantastic.

we are living in an age of information, enlisting all values and non-values under its banner so indiscriminantly that it has already supplied our children's overflowing cornucopia of miseries with a new category called a.d.d.; signifying attention deficit disorder. have you seen the great new jackson pollock retrospective at the museum of modern art? no, i saw it on television... (pause) must we learn again the simple, forthright experience of actually seeing a painting?

- william gaddis, 1998

fumbling towards ecstacy

hair twins. with each other and with me.

fall has made way for winter, but i love the way their clothing and styling echoes the casual warmth of fall.

theres something wonderfully mysterious about absence

"as artists, we need to not know what we're doing, otherwise we're always living in the rational world..

we have to dare to go further" - anish kapoor.

Y

kapoor, who often plays with negative space in his art (hence the title, another quote from the artist), is having his first exhibit in india, full article here via ma vie privée

since one year

(

street style throw back. serina (chic du chic) snapped this picture of mosha's ensemble on our way out of crêpes à gogo (best crêpes in toronto, ps) last winter.

the combo of the military-esque jacket with fur detailing, the nightingale (such an editors bag) and those ever versatile balenciaga boots was perfect for sunday brunch.

title - do you ever notice how, when french people want to say its been one year or for one year, they tend to say since one year? i find translation snags so interesting.

an emanation of the spiritual mirrors, and will always mirror, the spiritual reality from which it derives

nothing like a good bookshelf with a ladder in a bright space with high muraled ceilings framed by moldings. reblogged from grey. title from baudelaire's discussion of 19th century costume in the painter of modern life.